Kid points laser at YRP chopper, instantly arrested

Roomie said:
Wtf is wrong with the parents? Where are the parents? Waste of time and resources? Who the hell grows up thinking it's a good idea to point a weapon at a helicopter? Let alone a police helicopter? Society needs a serious redo. People are hopeless
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inreb said:
Who raises kids to raise kids to point weapons at helicopters?
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I don't know about you guys, but generally speaking, I see kids are being raised by video games more than their parents. After all, how often do you see kids that aren't playing games on their phones or iPads in the mall, restaurants, etc? Situation can't be so different at home. Then there was the time I saw a 9 year old kid's parents buy him GTA V even after multiple warnings of content with drugs, sex, (gun)violence from the clerk. Parents be like DILLIGAF?

What boggled my mind was the fact that the dad asked the kid "Are you sure you want this game?". Did he think the kid was going to say no?
 
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cbcanada said:
Why bother fixing the hopeless here? That would cost money.. It's way more profitable bombing the third world hopeless half way around the world.


"If i was educated, I'd be a damn fool"
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The one pointing the gun and laser was a member of Canada's Armed Forces. Maybe he was practising shooting down some third world airwolf.
 
griff2 said:
The one pointing the gun and laser was a member of Canada's Armed Forces. Maybe he was practising shooting down some third world airwolf.
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Also, I believe he wasnt a "kid" but 19yrs old.
 
CruisnGrrl said:
I'm not sure you get the seriousness of blinding a pilot, even temporarily

http://www.pangolin.com/faa/laser-aircraft-animation-and-explanation.htm

it's really easy to get a laser from china that will leave someone permanently blind. that's all we need is a blind pilot flying a plane.
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Yea I've seen that article before and I agree it's dangerous when the pilot is performing take-off/landing maneuvers or otherwise low to the ground because there's direct line of sight to the laser. I also agree it's just generally not a great idea. But it's a simulation setup with ideal conditions for blinding a pilot. When an aircraft is cruising/hovering high up in the air I believe the danger is minimal and really amounts to more of a nuisance than anything.

For this reason I think it's stupid to send a squad of cops on a chase like the kid murdered someone's family or something. I watched a video recently where someone in the US was supposedly sentenced to 14 years in prison for this! I'm sure some of you will say something along the lines of "what an idiot, good riddance" but that's really absurd. The anti-laser movement did a good job marketing their cause. [strike]While I'm expressing an un-popular view I'll also say the fact that the laser was attached to a toy gun is irrelevant in this case.[/strike]

Btw, there are limits... if someone were pointing one of these things at a plane I'd say arrest his *** lol
[video]https://youtu.be/iVrJUbeuG44?list=FLbBeICKOmwrtHAw9e7IvT6g[/video]

Edit: I was wrong about the gun part. Re-read the article and it seems they suspected it was a gun while they were still up in the air. This being the case I understand the reaction.
 
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That's some nice thermal vision. I wonder how my camo will fare
 
http://jalopnik.com/man-hit-with-14-year-prison-sentence-for-shining-laser-1541598389 heres an article on the 14 year prison sentance, how ever the laser pointing was just part of it, there were other factors to the sentance.

talking to pilots when the laser hits the cockpit they end up losing night vision for a good 15-20 minutes, that means they can't see anything out there, whether it's a hydro line, another aircraft, some one flying a drone, hydro tower.

In this instance they're in a helicopter over what looks like a residential area. there are plenty of hazards.
 
CruisnGrrl said:
http://jalopnik.com/man-hit-with-14-year-prison-sentence-for-shining-laser-1541598389 heres an article on the 14 year prison sentance, how ever the laser pointing was just part of it, there were other factors to the sentance.

talking to pilots when the laser hits the cockpit they end up losing night vision for a good 15-20 minutes, that means they can't see anything out there, whether it's a hydro line, another aircraft, some one flying a drone, hydro tower.

In this instance they're in a helicopter over what looks like a residential area. there are plenty of hazards.
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Thanks for looking that up. Sounds like he has had unrelated priors but the sentence is still pretty much due to the laser. They wanted to make an example of him. I get it but 14 years is terribly un-just.

The danger technically exists I won't argue that. I'll argue the severity of it though. A helicopter hovering over the city will not suddenly stop hovering or crash into something because of a momentary distraction unless it's while the pilot is performing some kind of maneuver close to the ground or near another object. I will give you this though... many helicopters have transparent areas near the feet which would make laser light refraction worse than in a plane. I think the issue I take with this whole anti-laser thing in general is that it's another example of something relatively minor that has been blown way out of proportion and people blindly hop on board.
 
PLau said:
I don't know about you guys, but generally speaking, I see kids are being raised by video games more than their parents. After all, how often do you see kids that aren't playing games on their phones or iPads in the mall, restaurants, etc? Situation can't be so different at home. Then there was the time I saw a 9 year old kid's parents buy him GTA V even after multiple warnings of content with drugs, sex, (gun)violence from the clerk. Parents be like DILLIGAF?

What boggled my mind was the fact that the dad asked the kid "Are you sure you want this game?". Did he think the kid was going to say no?
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Damn kids and their:
-Dungeons & Dragons
-Rock & Roll
-Playing cards
-Dancing
 
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
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– "Socrates", Clouds by Aristophanes 470 BCE
 
PLau said:
What boggled my mind was the fact that the dad asked the kid "Are you sure you want this game?". Did he think the kid was going to say no?
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That's like asking a practicing alcoholic if he/she wants a drink...
 
AF4iK said:
Thanks for looking that up. Sounds like he has had unrelated priors but the sentence is still pretty much due to the laser. They wanted to make an example of him. I get it but 14 years is terribly un-just.

The danger technically exists I won't argue that. I'll argue the severity of it though. A helicopter hovering over the city will not suddenly stop hovering or crash into something because of a momentary distraction unless it's while the pilot is performing some kind of maneuver close to the ground or near another object. I will give you this though... many helicopters have transparent areas near the feet which would make laser light refraction worse than in a plane. I think the issue I take with this whole anti-laser thing in general is that it's another example of something relatively minor that has been blown way out of proportion and people blindly hop on board.
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it's not just unrelated priors but he had probation issues. his girlfriend you'll note was only charged with one thing and got 5 years. and from the ground you don't know what the pilot is about to do and if they're low enough for you to aim at then likely they are taking off or landing or in a holding pattern.

here's where someone got blinded by one of those laser pointers, granted it's not in a plane but it shows the power that they have. http://blog.burningman.com/2015/03/...-black-dot-in-the-middle-of-everything-i-see/

I don't think that the sentence is too harsh given the potential.
 
AF4iK said:
I get it but 14 years is terribly un-just.
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The punishment needs to be stiff enough to make others think twice about committing the same horrendous act...

I wonder if you would be uttering those same words if it was your life that was ruined by some irresponsible lowlife...
 
CruisnGrrl said:
it's not just unrelated priors but he had probation issues. his girlfriend you'll note was only charged with one thing and got 5 years. and from the ground you don't know what the pilot is about to do and if they're low enough for you to aim at then likely they are taking off or landing or in a holding pattern.

here's where someone got blinded by one of those laser pointers, granted it's not in a plane but it shows the power that they have. http://blog.burningman.com/2015/03/...-black-dot-in-the-middle-of-everything-i-see/

I don't think that the sentence is too harsh given the potential.
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To address your points:

- A plane doesn't have to be very low to the ground for a laser pointer to reach it. Don't misconstrue this to mean that the laser pointer must be especially powerful, it's just a property of collimated light. Many of these pointers can theoretically reach the moon.

- Any laser pointer can blind someone if shone directly into the eye especially at close range. So can a flashlight. This is not what happens with aircraft flying high above so any example of terrestrial blinding is not really applicable. The laser beam is not a perfectly parallel beam, especially a lot of the cheaper china made pointers which most people have. It diverges exponentially with distance. By the time it reaches a plane cruising or circling high up in the sky, the beam is not likely to be focused enough to cause any real damage to your vision. Unless you stare into it for a prolonged period which is also not possible because of a) the plane's motion and, b) the magnified motion of the hand holding the laser pointer. Add to that the difficulty of actually shining a beam directly into a cockpit from that angle on the ground (except during take-off/landing as I've mentioned before). Any laser light reaching the pilot then is likely to be highly unfocused, refracted and intermittent.

- The sentence is harsh no matter how you cut it. Ruining someone's life just to make an example out of them for an act of minor mischief is wrong because it's political not judicial.

Grandpa_Bambu said:
The punishment needs to be stiff enough to make others think twice about committing the same horrendous act...

I wonder if you would be uttering those same words if it was your life that was ruined by some irresponsible lowlife...
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"Horrendous"? "Lowlife"? Who's life was ruined by a laser being shone at a plane? Your post is exactly the kind of emotional, knee-jerk reaction I'm taking issue with. I've already stated that I don't think it's a good idea to shine lasers at planes. I just don't think that it's as big a problem as everyone's making it out to be. The resources put into chasing down kids with laser pointers could be far better spent elsewhere. Makes sense?
 
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